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Thursday, August 28, 2014

Sisterlocks at 2 months

The Journey Stage

Month 2

So I am now two months in! Woooooo! J/k... it's not that exciting but whatever... I'm looking forward to completing 3 months soon. I have an unspoken bet to myself that my hair will lock after 4 months. Yes, I know that's terribly ambitious of me. And yes, I know I should sit back and let my hair do its thing. But what's a little friendly competition with yourself? lol My consultant confirmed what I knew, my locks are beginning to lock up. Some still have just a bud on them others are half way locked.. others are somewhere in between. As you can see shrinkage is definitely factor and I don't mind it. My ends have definitely curled up and are matting up for the most part.

Day 2

One thing I didn't think about before I got sisterlocks was the questions and attention it brings. Now some people may like this, but me... after the 2nd time I was stopped by a random stranger, I was already over it. Now in my defense, being questioned about something that is inherently "me" is a pet peeve I've unfortunately developed overtime, mainly because of my name. My name always starts a string of questions and after a couple of decades its become annoying. Imagine trying to talk to a patient about something important and the only thing they have in response is about the origin of your name... But I digress... well my fro that I wore so fabulously for 7 years has, no joke, caused complete strangers to run up to my car while I'm pumping gas to ask for hair advice... really tho? I'm pumping gas... who are YOU! Well looks like SL's are not going to be any different. I got stopped at a toll booth and questioned for 5 minutes... I mean really. I'm at a toll booth... I'm in my car... clearly I have places to go... lol.

Maintenance

So I had what might be a bit of an allergic reaction to the sisterlocks starter shampoo. The verdict is still out on that... But until I start to add back on three of the suspected culprits slowly and separately to see which caused the reactions, I have to stay away from it. So obviously I started to do some research to see if I could find some alternatives shampoos. I was looking preferably for an all natural, or close to all natural shampoo, that was residue free and as simple as possible (ingredients wise) and without any conditioner.

I had originally settled on Trader Joe's Tea Tree Shampoo. I saw a few other sisterlockers (is that a word?) who loved the shampoo and it was only $3.99 in the store. However, I guess everyone in the world also likes it because it was out of stock in my time of need. So I headed over to Whole Food's knowing that I saw a recommendation for Alaffia black soap. Because I hadn't completed my full research on the black soap and was worried that it may leave some residue, I then followed it with a quick apple cider vinegar rinse to clarify. I liked the Alaffia black soap. My biggest worry that it would leave residue was unfounded. Therefore I could/should have skipped the apple cider vinegar rinse.

In fact, I wouldn't recommend anyone starting out use an apple cider vinegar rinse at all. While it does remove leftover residue in the hair, it also does a fantastic job at making your hair soft (wish I would have discovered this when I was a loose natural). Because the rinse I did was very dilute, (because I WAS worried about it making my hair too soft), I didn't let it sit in my hair long at all I luckily didn't have any slippage, but I can see how that could easily happen. I do like how the ACV made my hair feel though, soft, fluffier, fuller... However, I also know that this is counterproductive to the locking process. But I think it may be a go to when my locks mature.

But in other news I've been good with staying away from moisture and oils. After that first month of rebellion and now that my ends have started to matt up I don't see the breakage I saw at first. My scalp also is no longer flaking so no need to jojoba oil to the scalp after a wash.

Styling

Various Styles

So obviously during different stages and throughout your life of having SL's everyone is gonna wanna play with a new hairstyle here and there. Me? Not really. I really just wanna get up and go and look cute. However, the length and stage of my locks right now don't really make that possible. If I were to just get up and go I look like I'm wearing the helmet of Darth Vader. I hate curls so bantu knots are out. I really like it in the kinky stage after a braid or twist out. But A) I'm always too lazy at night to do either one of those and B) I don't want to continually manipulate my hair that much to achieve that look. So I've found myself embracing variations of my natural hair protective undoes. While it was a time consuming process as a loose natural, now it's one of the quickest things I can do to it. Mainly due to the fact that I don't have to make it look so neat, in fact I sort of enjoy the messy looks. I also really like it because they are protective styles and my ends are tucked snuggly away . I can accomplish them without pulling my edges (which I typically let out of the style anyways) and it takes as little as 4-5 bobby pins. My apologies that you can't really see a good picture of the back to really see the actual designs, but I have no one to take if for me, lol.

Sisterlocks and the Beach

Now I was warned by my consultant to at least cornroll my locks if I decided to go swimming. WELLLLLL..... feel free to refer to part of this post as what not to do with baby locks. I most certainly did not cornroll my locks before I took a swim in the Atlantic Ocean. But nothing terrible came from my walk on the wild side. In fact it was kind of the opposite. I L-O-V-E-D the way the salt water has made my SL's feel. Now this is counterintuitive because prolonged exposure to saltwater causes hair to become dry, however, although I visited the beach several times I had one excursion alone (sans little kids) where I was able to enjoy the water fully. So my hair only got wet once. The only "bad" thing to occur from all of this is some left sand I still need to wash out of my hair.